The ability to evaluate new designs and/or improve existing instruments and methodologies for the detection of manufacturing defects or holes in barriers, such as condoms and rubber gloves, is dependent on calibration (hole) standards. The production of these calibration standards to evaluate test instruments requires the ability to produce small holes (1-10 .mu.m diameter) in intact condoms and rubber gloves. Hole calibration standards allow a quantitative comparison between different tests or between existing and improved tests.
Fabricating hole standards in an elastic polymer such as latex, the prevalent condom and glove material, is a difficult task due to the high elasticity of latex. When a simple pin is used to create a hole in a latex film, the usual result is a closed hole or very large hole (a result of shear or tearing) under conditions of zero strain (normal size). This results from the sharp point first piercing the material, followed by the larger diameter pin shank stretching the small perforation as the pin is advanced through the material. In addition, a 1-10 .mu.m diameter hole in a normal condom/glove (thickness 50-90 .mu.m/100-250 .mu.m) results in a range of aspect ratios (length/diameter) of 5-90 for condoms and 10-250 for gloves. Producing a hole with aspect ratios greater than 10 at these size diameters is difficult. Tooling, for fabricating holes, with these aspect ratios and these small diameters does not exist and barrier materials of interest tend to be too flexible for tooling and not normally sufficiently rigid for punching or drilling holes.
The use of eximer (Ultraviolet(UV)) lasers has also been tried as a way of producing holes. However, latex (and most polymers) are degraded by UV light. Latex that has an eximer irradiated hole is usually carbonized the hole. Even when the intensity of the eximer laser is reduced, the latex surface is altered chemically by the laser irradiation. A hole, whose walls and outer surrounding surface is chemically different from bulk material, will exhibit different physical properties and behavior. Therefore, a hole made in this way will not be a good representation of a naturally occurring defect, whose properties should closely resemble that of the bulk or intact material.